becbart: Helen Fremont grew up believing that her parents were ardent Catholics when in fact they were Polish Jews who had survived the Holocaust and totally reinvented themselves in post-war America. A moving memoir of how Fremont and her sister pieced together an almost-vanished family history.… (more)

How do you criticize a book awarded a Carnegie medal? There were parts of this book which enthralled me, and parts that seemed just a bit contrived. I guessed the plot twist early on which didn't make it less interesting, but stories where the endings are wrapped up neatly (to me) makes the difference between a good book and a great book. ( )

This was Michael's book report selection for a novel about World War II. The book switches back and forth between the present and 1945. The main character, a teenage girl, Tamar, is shaken by the apparent suicide of her grandfather. He was a member of the Dutch resistance during the war and had the code name, Tamar. The story is a bit of a mystery as Tamar tries to learn about why her grandfather killed himself. The WWII part of the story is loosely based on the Dutch resistance at the end of the war. Tamar is one of the organizers of the Dutch resistance and he and his partner Dart send regular coded messages to England to coordinate drop shipments of food and supplies, as well as alert the English about the German actions in the Netherlands. The book is based on a true story of how one cell in the Dutch resistance decided to create a road block to steal a truckload of pork. Instead, they end up stopping the staff car of General Hans Rauter, the highest ranking Nazi in the Netherlands. All of the Germans, except for Rauter are killed and Rauter is seriously injured. In retribution, Rauter orders the public execution of hundreds of Dutch men and boys. This story was very well written and a perfect selection of WWII fiction. It included espionage, a bit of a love story, a mystery, and very realistic descriptions of a country occupied by the enemy. I definitely would recommend this for late middle school or high school students (it was a little bit old for my 6th grader). ( )

The war story links with the contemporary one through the character of the granddaughter who has the same name as the grandfather. This book has so many satisfying threads: there are two love stories, there is a war story of thwarting the Nazis in occupied Netherlands, and at the heart of it all is a question of identity. ( )

Mal Peet's second novel is utterly unlike his first, Keeper, save in one respect: the quality of the writing. This sombre and distinguished book is as fine a piece of storytelling as you are likely to read this year.

When her grandfather dies, Tamar inherits a box containing a series of clues and coded messages. Out of the past, another Tamar emerges, a man involved in the terrifying world of resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied Holland half a century before. His story is one of passionate love, jealousy, and tragedy set against the daily fear and casual horror of the Second World War -- and unraveling it is about to transform Tamar’s life forever.

From acclaimed British sensation Mal Peet comes a masterful story of adventure, love, secrets, and betrayal in time of war, both past and present.

In England in 1995, fifteen-year-old Tamar, grief-stricken by the puzzling death of her beloved grandfather, slowly begins to uncover the secrets of his life in the Dutch resistance during the last year of the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, and the climactic events that forever cast a shadow on his life and that of his family.… (more)